Safe with Evil
by tider58
Summary: Fluffy Spike and Dawn friendship ficlet. Lifetime movies and liquor, a winning combination!


**_Second in my series of short, unrelated ficlets about Dawn and Spike (friendship only; you won't find any Spawn here). Please read and review if you'd like to see more. Thanks in advance! (For the first Spike/Dawn ficlet, you can link to "Always Been Bad" in my bio.)_**

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He didn't have to turn around when the door to his crypt was flung open; he could sense her coming a mile away. Keeping his eyes glued to the flickering TV screen, he took a deep pull on the bottle in his hand and said in a gravelly tone, "What have I told you about coming here by yourself after dark?"

She shrugged unconcernedly. "Not to?"

"So you've got a death wish, then. 'Cause if something out there doesn't kill you, I just might. Need to learn to bloody well do as you're told, Little Bit."

Undeterred, Dawn bounded over to the couch and settled herself in comfortably next to him. "Buffy's patrolling, Tara and Willow are off doing spells, as if I'm too young and naïve to get the euphemism there, Xander and Anya are arguing in our kitchen as usual while they're supposed to be hanging out with me, and I got lonely. And I knew you'd be lonely too, because all you've done lately is mope. So I'm here to cheer you up."

He raised an eyebrow at her dubiously. "That what you call these incessant little pestering sessions of yours? Cheering me up? Let me relieve you of that burden here and now pet. I do not need bloody cheering up. I do not need annoying little girls risking life and limb to come crashing in here at all hours and sit too close and talk too much and interrupt what was turning out to be a very engaging movie."

Dawn paused, peering at the television screen. "Spike?" she asked, a slow smile spreading across her face. "Is that Judith Light? You're watching the bloody Lifetime Movie Channel again, you nancy boy!"

He glared at her in a way that would have set grown men to trembling, and she merely giggled.

"Stop talking like me," he said. "I'm a bad influence."

"No you're not."

"Yes," he said through gritted teeth. "I _am_."

"How do you figure?" Dawn asked curiously as they began their customary tussle over the remote control. "You don't let me smoke or drink or curse—not the really bad ones anyway—or walk alone at night or go out with older boys or steal, or basically do anything that any self-respecting juvenile delinquent should be able to do. I mean, my own sister forgets to make sure I'm home by curfew or that I even actually go to school. _You_ never did, back when … well, you never did."

"You have a point?"

Looking self-satisfied, Dawn pried the remote from his suddenly slack hand and started channel-surfing. "I think I just made it, _Big Bad_," she said smugly.

He gave her his Biggest Baddest glower, and lowered his voice to a menacing growl. "Listen here, little girl, you can't even conceive of all the ways I could corrupt your innocent mind. I could show and tell you things that would keep you awake nights for the rest of your life, sweating and blubbering and scared to take your eyes off the shadows in your sweet purple bedroom for fear of what might be lurking there waiting for a taste."

"It's lavender, not purple," Dawn corrected, utterly unimpressed with his attempt to sound threatening. She made a grab for his scotch. "Can I have a sip?"

"No," he said instantly, holding the bottle easily out of her reach.

Dawn laughed, her "I told you so" silent but no less obvious than if she'd said it aloud.

"Not proper for young ladies," he amended, realizing that he was proving her point for her. "Get a glass."

Raising her eyebrows skeptically, Dawn grinned. "Really? I can have some?"

He fixed her with an appraising stare. "Why not? Just so long as you don't tell big sis. If you do, I promise I'll spend the rest of my unlife making you regret it."

"Ooh, you're so scary."

"Watch it, Bit, I'll show you scary."

Dawn went over to Spike's makeshift wet bar, quite impressively stocked to be just a dank corner of a cemetery crypt, and retrieved a surprisingly spotless highball glass. She held it in front of him expectantly. "Hit me."

"Don't tempt me," he muttered dryly as he poured her about an inch of the amber liquid. "Cheers."

Dawn raised the glass to her nose and sniffed delicately. Spike rolled his eyes as she wrinkled her nose distastefully. "Hey, that's good stuff," he protested. "If you can't appreciate good liquor when you've got it, maybe you should stick to Pepsi and hot cocoa. Give it here."

She dodged his grasp and tipped the glass up to her lips, pouring the contents into her mouth all in one shot and swallowing with great, painful effort. A moment later, she gagged and then dissolved into a gasping fit of coughs. Spike thumped her on the back unhelpfully. When at last she recovered herself, she looked at him through streaming eyes and said in a choked voice, "That hit the spot."

He gave her a disdainful look. "Burns going down, yeah?"

Dawn nodded wordlessly, wincing as the scorching liquid flamed inside her.

Snatching the glass from her hand, Spike said gruffly, "Don't you forget it."

"Can I have a cigarette?"

"No."

"Come on, Spike."

"No! Now leave me the hell alone before I toss you out on your ass." He grabbed the remote away from her and turned the TV back to the Judith Light movie. "I want to see if the husband did it."

"The husband did it," Dawn said, rolling her eyes. "The husband _always_ did it."

They watched in silence for a few minutes, Dawn curled companionably next to him, resting her head on his arm as if he were the most harmless thing in the world. He looked down at her bowed head, his brow furrowed.

"You could pretend to be afraid of me every now and then, you know. Good for the ego."

Dawn snorted. "Okay. Spike, you are a terrifying specimen to behold. I tremble in your horrifying, vampiric presence." He could hear the smile in her voice as she added, "I certainly don't feel safer with you than anyone else in the world."

"Bloody hell."

"Sorry. I tried."

When Dawn fell asleep, Spike gently stretched her long legs out on the couch and covered her with a frayed but clean blanket. Buffy or one of the others would come for her once they realized she was missing. No one would panic because there was no question where she'd gone. And she _was_ safer with him than with anyone else in the world. Sighing deeply as he watched her sleeping, Spike tried to pretend that knowledge offended him.


End file.
